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God Is Not White

When Nieviadomy leads a group in the Blanket Exercise . . . she “sees light bulbs go off.”

“God was here before you missionaries came,” Steve Kabetu’s great-grandfather told missionaries who arrived in East Africa in the early 1900s. “What we didn’t know was that he had a Son.”

Today Kabetu serves as Canada director with Christian Reformed World Missions. His great-grandfather was one of the elders who welcomed British missionaries into their village in rural Kenya.

When the missionaries set up a school and asked the elders to send their children, Kabetu’s great-grandfather sent his youngest son, a boy who didn’t seem to be cut out for cattle herding. The boy excelled at school and soon was sent to England to study. Later, he returned to work with the missionaries in his home village, translating the Bible into the Kikuyu language. Years later, that man’s grandson is digging into how the churches that sent those missionaries also played a part in the colonization of indigenous peoples.

Despite his partnership with the missionaries, Kabetu’s grandfather and his people were eventually pushed onto reserves and required to carry passes and observe curfews. “My grandfather’s message until the day he died was, ‘Please distinguish between the white man who brought news of Jesus Christ and the white man who came to take your land,’” Kabetu said.

Unfortunately, bad theology was having an effect in Kenya and elsewhere. Formally expressed in a series of proclamations from the Pope when Columbus first landed in the Americas, the idea was that Christians were more fully human than “heathens” or “pagans.” Pagans could not hold title to land and had to be both civilized and evangelized. These proclamations, or papal bulls, are known as the Doctrine of Discovery.

“The Doctrine of Discovery came with entitlement—we own your way of life, all your systems,” said Kabetu.

Louis Leakey, the famous paleoanthropologist and archaeologist who grew up in the same village as Kabetu’s family, wrote a book about the life of the Kikuyu people before the arrival of the British, illustrating the complexity and sophistication of their social systems. But the British colonial government blocked the book’s publication for 40 years, said Kabetu. “The stated objective for their colonization efforts was based on the premise that the African needed to be ‘civilized,’ regardless of the fact that by that time several communities had been followers of Christ—some of them for decades.”

Kabetu is part of a task force that is studying the Doctrine of Discovery and the impact it has had on the Christian Reformed church’s approach to missions and on its members. His family’s story has echoes in North America. The reserves on poor land, pass systems, curfews, and government control are familiar to Indigenous people in North America. People such as Michelle Nieviadomy.

Nieviadomy remembers the shame she felt as a Cree child when her elementary school teacher spoke about Indigenous people. “It was hard to even acknowledge my identity,” she says. “One kid would make fun of me with Chinese jokes, and I remember thinking that at least it was better than Indian jokes.”

Nieviadomy is not alone in this experience. Now working with the Edmonton Native Healing Centre (ENHC), a Christian Reformed ministry in Edmonton, Alberta, she comes across people every day who are dealing with the effects of the Doctrine of Discovery and its dehumanizing theology.

She tells the story of an ENHC social worker who met an Indigenous woman in a park. “The woman had gone through unrelenting trauma and carried all this guilt and shame,” said Nieviadomy. When the social worker told her about residential schools and the years of difficulties her people had faced, it was like a burden was lifted. “She realized, ‘It’s not just me.’ It’s not about blaming anyone, but when you’re in a society that doesn’t treat you as equal, you can start to take it on.”

Nieviadomy grew up in a mostly white suburban neighborhood. Though her mother tried to connect her to her history and background, “I was stone cold,” she said. “I had zero desire to know about who I was as a Cree person.”

A pivotal moment came one day during history class at university while learning about the Doctrine of Discovery. “I started really dealing with my feelings about my identity and healing through music when I first started working at the Edmonton Native Healing Centre,” she said.

A few years ago, she hosted a night of music to share her journey from shame to pride in her Indigenous identity. Called “Moccasins in My Closet,” the event featured Nieviadomy’s original songs. One song in particular tells about the struggle and celebration of letting the things she had “hidden in the closet” into the light. “It was a kind of coming out event. There’s something beautiful in who we are.”

Nieviadomy said that Indigenous gifts and contributions are not valued as automatically as those of white people. “With Native teachers, and those of other races as well, there’s always the question, ‘Are they going to lead me the wrong way?’ “I want non-Native people to hear our story and not wonder if they can trust it.”

She is excited that the Christian Reformed Church is studying the Doctrine of Discovery. “It makes me feel that the CRC is going beyond talk to step into this history with us together,” she said. “This is not just Aboriginal history; it belongs to all of us.”

When she leads a group in the Blanket Exercise, an interactive exercise that walks participants through the history of the relationship between Indigenous peoples and other Canadians, she “sees light bulbs go off,” she said. “I think this process will create more of those light bulbs.”

In the United States, Susie Silversmith has been deeply impacted as well. At the age of 6, she was sent to Kinlichee Boarding School. The school was not far from her home in Ganado, Ariz., but might as well have been in another world.

“We were training like we were in the military, with strict rules and a lot of punishment,” Silversmith said. “This was to strip the Navajo out of me to become a ‘bilaaghiha,’” she said, using the Navajo word for “white man.”

Kinlichee was a very violent place, Silversmith said. One incident involving another student left her unconscious. But fighting back meant punishment. Sometimes students were ordered to kneel on the cement floor for hours, and Silversmith’s mouth was washed out with soap many times for speaking the Navajo language.

Loneliness plagued her during the nine years at boarding school. “Every time I had a chance I would go to the laundry room. It had a big window; if you sat at a certain place, you would see the road at the top of the mesa. Many times I longed for my parents to come get me.

“I was baptized many times with the Catholic, Presbyterian, Mormons, and other religious groups that came to the boarding school on Wednesdays and Sunday nights to teach religious instruction,” Silversmith recalled. “In the back of my mind, when I think of my parents, they had their own ways of praying for us in their own ceremonial and traditional Navajo ways. And I am thankful for that because there were a lot of bad things happening to us in boarding school.”

Despite this abuse, God reached Silversmith through a Navajo science teacher at her high school. “He would give me short verses to read,” she said. “At the end of the school year he asked me if I was ready to let Jesus come into my heart. My reply was yes because it was not beaten into me like in my earlier years. I wasn’t scared anymore. I am grateful to my Creator God; Jesus Christ, the Son of God; and the Holy Spirit, my helper.”

Talking about her years at boarding school is still hard for Silversmith. She is thankful for the way that God continues to heal and change her. One of her favorite Bible verses is 2 Corinthians 12:9: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’”

“I am a walking miracle,” she said. “We are all Creator God’s children, no matter the color of our skin. We are created by him, and he loves each and every one of us.”

Doctrine of Discovery

The Doctrine of Discovery is a series of 15th-century papal declarations that gave European kings and their representatives the right to lay claim to any land that they “discovered,” giving theological and legal justification for colonization. These declarations influenced the development of property law and policy toward Indigenous people in Canada and the United States. “Theologically, the Doctrine of Discovery has been the handmaid to the idolatrous assumption that God’s presence has been confined to Western civilization—an idea that has all but destroyed the capacity of the major denominations to grow in Indigenous communities,” according to Rev. Mark MacDonald, National Indigenous Bishop of the Anglican Church of Canada. Growing awareness of the long influence of the Doctrine of Discovery has led to a wide range of ecumenical and denominational studies.

Doctrine of Discovery Task Force

Born out of the Creation Stewardship Task Force at Synod 2012, the Doctrine of Discovery Task Force has been given the task of developing a shared understanding of the Doctrine of Discovery and its consequences for the Christian Reformed Church. The task force will also encourage a learning process among CRC members and leaders. In particular, it is encouraging churches and classes to do the Blanket Exercise, an interactive history of the relationship between Indigenous peoples and settlers.

Chaired by Mike Hogeterp of the Christian Reformed Centre for Public Dialogue, the task force includes Indigenous people and members of other minority communities as well as academics and lay leaders. It will report to Synod 2016.

Please Pray

May the Holy Spirit move powerfully to reconnect us and reconcile us as people sharing this land. Give thanks for the ways the Spirit is already at work, both visibly through activities such as the Blanket Exercise and invisibly, quietly changing peoples’ hearts.

May God grant wisdom to the Doctrine of Discovery Task Force. May their work cultivate the shoots of reconciliation that have been growing.

Give thanks for the Indigenous Family Centre’s 40th anniversary. Its work on the front lines of reconciliation in Winnipeg is a beautiful model of what can happen when we truly see the image of God in each other.

In My Closet

I feel lost in the world and I cannot define How I got where I am and who am I now What happened to me Turned my world upside down, left me shaking inside I look all around and I cannot decide which way do I go So confusion set in, I stumble around Find my way but I’m blind I just want to go home But where did that go

Chorus It’s a bit of mess in my closet But I’m OK I'm shedding some light oh here in the darkness It’s a bit of mess but it’s alright It’s the first time, it’s the first time I'm alive . . .

Years and years passed me by I was barely alive, I was trying to survive Trying to get back I didn't know how to deal I look left, I look right I look deep down inside of my soul to unfold But the memories run cold I didn't want to feel . . .

About the Author

Danielle Rowaan is the CRC’s Justice Communication and Education coordinator.

Comments

Doug Vande Griend replied on Wed, 12/10/2014 - 1:56pm

I'm not quite understanding this CRCNA interest in the Doctrine of Discovery. Around the time that doctrine was being formulated by the Roman Catholic Church, Dutch Calvinists (including Guido de Bres himself even) were being burned alive for being heretics -- by the Roman Catholic Church (working with the king of Spain of course). In other words, a number of Roman Catholic "doctrines" back then thought very little of everyone besides Roman Catholics, Dutch Calvinists included.

So having been on the bad end of Roman Catholics "doctrines" 500 years ago, we now have "... a task force that is studying the Doctrine of Discovery and the impact it has had on the Christian Reformed church’s approach to missions and on its members"?? I'm supposing that study might conclude that the CRCNA ended up somehow aligning with Roman Catholics "doctrines" of 500 years ago in some way, or adopting it (swapping positions despite the history between the RC Church and Dutch Calvinists)? If not, why would the CRCNA be studying it?

I'm not really seeing the point of this study. But if it is to be done, I'm really hoping this task force doesn't take note that the Dutch were a white race, and so all the bad things white people have done are now attributable to the CRCNA because it is historically Dutch, who in turn are white. Were that kind of logic claimed, the CRCNA would be responsible for the Nazi holocaust as well.

Thank you for this beautifully written piece about a difficult topic. I am grateful for those who are grappling with the Doctrine of Discovery and how it may have influenced perspectives, decisions, and policies in the CRC (maybe still today). I pray that through their work we may gain understanding and insight and that it may lead to confession for what needs to be confessed, forgiveness, healing, reconciliation, and appreciation for and acceptance of the gifts that God has given all people.

"The Doctrine [of Discovery] is a case study of the danger when church and state coalesce into a single mission with a church providing theological rationale and the state enforcing the church's theology. It calls us to be clear about the relationship between church and state and the theology value of separation."

Amen. Restated in shorthand, the Kuyperian concept of sphere sovereignty is a very important concept and if we ignore it, things go wrong. And indeed, things did go wrong, in all kinds of ways, when the middle ages Roman Catholic Church and the state (in a number of nations) did coalesce. That coalescent killed Dutch Calvinists and other non-Roman Catholics in great numbers.

A number of churches have "condemned" this 500 year old "Doctrine of Discovery" (see the Prezi presentation for that as well) which if fine I suppose (there are so many 500 things our church could condemn though), and I wouldn't have an objection to the CRCNA condemning it as well. Even more, I think it would be constructive to affirm the Calvinism-based doctrine of sphere sovereignty, not only because that doctrine creates (non-absolute) separation between the institutional church and the state, but other societal separations as well (institutional church from organic church, institutional church from school, and family and individual, etc).

If this task force merely covers the Doctrine of Discovery and the effects of that doctrine as applied to indigenous peoples many years ago by some governments, the task force will produce little of value. But if the task force broadens the study to the appropriate relationship between the state (government) and the institutional church, there would be more value. In part, the value would be in celebrating the wisdom of the perspective of our own theological tradition (sphere sovereignty) and our own fundamental political tradition in the US (emanating from a Lockean thinking -- see his Second Treatise on Goverment -- which also recognized "sphere sovereignty" even if not by that label). Also in part, the task force could remind us -- in a political era where sphere sovereignty is starting to be ignored or forgotten -- that oversized government (society's sphere that wields the power of the sword) can create serious problems, and institutional church alignment with government can be fraught with problems, whether one's ancestors are represented by indigenous peoples in the Americas or Guido de Bres (author of the Belgic Confession) in the Netherlands.

You have some good historical points, Doug. But, the crime against ‘First Nations’ people was inherently cultural/‘racial,’ and it was really bad. Especially in Canada, there simply are still horrible, lasting effects of this abuse. Maybe, as an exercise in Peacemaking, the CRC do some good to differentiate between people of a ‘white’ god and Godly ‘white’ people.

After that, maybe the more nuanced questions of theology and culture can be asked. It is simply easier to address white-on-(other) religious abuse than it is to address white-on-white religious abuse. The dichotomy is much easier to target than the deep theological issues which, frankly, just confuse people.

Burning Calvinists alive because they confessed what the Belgic Confession said was not "really bad?"

Putting aside historical "good" and "bad" (or which atrocity was worse), my suggestion is not to ignore "abuse" against "First Nations" people in Canada. My question asked why we were studying the Doctrine of Discovery. Not only is the doctrine of RC origin, the historic reformed tradition never adopted the doctrine but rather fought against coalescing the church and state into a single mission. My further suggestion was that if we do study this doctrine, we should study the broader context (the importance of the sphere sovereignty doctrine we have historically claimed, in order that we not coalesce the church and state into a single mission) if we are to benefit from the study. If the study merely blames the CRCNA for doing what the other "white people" did, we accomplish nothing at best, rewrite history at worst, and sanction a racist analysis to boot (i.e., CRCers are historically white and therefore responsible for all bad acts done by other white people).

As even suggested by this article, we too should not fail to " ... distinguish between the white man who brought news of Jesus Christ and the white man who came to take [indigenous people's] land,” and we should affirm that part of our doctrinal tradition (Kuyperian sphere sovereignty) that would oppose both the kind of church/state conglomerate that both took indigenous people's lands and killed Guido de Bres and other European Calvinists, whether yesterday or today.

Thanks for this article and the links provided. My son-in-law is Canadian, Ojibwe First Nation and a Christian. I have gone up to the reserve for three summer mission trips with my children and other Christians. I am learning that there are still bad memories associated with boarding schools and this carries down to the attitudes that Natives have towards us today. This is still a major stumbling block to trusting us and our message about Jesus, the Son of Creator God. It's difficult to explain that what Christians did in the past was not "of God or what Jesus would have done." I'm interested in how other Christians approach this topic when reaching out to Native Americans with the gospel message.

Thank you for this article. I agree that it is so important to acknowledge the devastation that was done to indiginous peoples in the name of our Lord Jesus, and by Europeans, like us. We don't stand alone here, nor does anyone. Our past, even generations past, are a part of who we are, just as it is a part of who others are. If we want to have meaningful relationships and live into our calling to be one as Jesus and the Father are one (see John 17) we need to pay attention to what has gone before. And sadly that includes much evil. Our hope is in our God who is powerful to overcome, and who has a heart for reconciliation between people and himself, and also between people groups, and between individuals. Because of this hope, we can be honest about our history, even the awful parts. But that doesn't mean it will be easy. My prayers will be with this task force as they do this difficult but important work.

I've found the documentary, Journey to Forgiveness, (http://www.whitebison.org/boarding-school-apology/forgiveness-journey-video.php) to be helpful in understanding, especially how boarding schools impacted native culture. The effects of this generational trauma are still with us. None of us possess the entire truth, that is why we need one another, and need to listen to these voices and stories that are rarely heard.